2024 Difference Maker: Lauren Jones is transforming Cape's arts culture with aerial acrobatics and community engagement

The first time Lauren Jones took her son to gymnastics class, she wasn’t expecting it to be anything more than a routine parental drop-off.

“When I lived in New York and my son was 10, I told him he had to do something physical. And he said ‘Well, if I’m going to do gymnastics, you’ve got to do something,’” Jones said. “There was a girl that was setting up a trapeze, and I was like, ‘Oh, that looks interesting, I’ll do that.’”

Fast forward two decades, and Jones is the founder and owner of both The Edge - Pilates & Aerial Arts Studio and the Cape Specialty Entertainment Group.

Jones comes from the small town of Marshall, Texas, and attended the School of The Arts in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Jones modeled for Wilhemina Models in New York City from 1982 to 2006, before eventually moving to Cape Girardeau and forming Yoga On Broadway in 2010. When the indoor trampoline park [LeBounce] closed, Yoga On Broadway [now The Edge] took over the space and expanded to include aerial arts.

“I think we are the only aerial/circus arts place from Memphis to St. Louis,” Jones said.

The aerial arts involve an individual performing acrobatics while hanging from a silk, ribbon or special fabric. Jones acknowledges the intimidation factor that comes with the aerial arts but emphasizes that introductory and “try-out” classes are encouraged, and as Jones says, “It’s not the Cirque Du Soleil”. With the aerial arts combining the power of core workouts and the creativity of a performance, Jones has confidence in its appeal.

“I think it’s just getting in the door and trying it. And if you don’t like it, I get it. But if you do…” Jones laughs. “Like I can’t imagine going back to a gym, it’s just not nearly as fun.”

As an adjunct professor at Southeast Missouri State University, Jones brought aerial arts to the semi-professional level. However, when SEMO went in a “different direction” with their program, she provided free classes to all students who wanted to continue. Jones, having graduated with dual MBAs from the London Business School and Columbia Business School in New York City, then formed the Cape Specialty Entertainment Group.

“There were a whole bunch of performers around, but there wasn’t any one place that represented everybody,” Jones said. “Nowhere to say, ‘I want a stilt walker or a juggler or this kind of thing.’ And people trying to find that were like, ‘I don’t know where to go.’”

As a member of the Screen Actors Guild, Jones knows the importance of giving performers a way to structure their funds and opportunities, via SAG-AFTRA rates. By paying recent graduates and seasoned professionals the equivalent big-city rates, Jones cultivates the growing art scene in Southeast Missouri. The recent smash hit production of “Alice In Wonderland” exemplifies her desire to provide opportunities for kids and professionals alike.

“One of our biggest pushes,” Lauren laughs, wondering how this came to be, “is getting youth exposed to the different kinds of performing arts.”

More than 700 students from the Cape Elementary schools attended the live performance, for free, while thousands more in the community were present. From hiring four students from SEMO to do voiceovers, to creating, from scratch, the score, design, writing and choreography, the “Alice in Wonderland” production this past March was a culmination of a year and a half’s worth of work for all involved. For Jones, it's been decades in the making.

“It’s just wanting to see the performing arts get a little more out there with the community; there’s a lot of talent here,” Jones said. “Everyone thinks you have to be in New York or L.A., and having been in New York for 20 years, I’m like, ‘Nobody is from New York, guys’. They all come here from everywhere else in the country, and everywhere else in the country is where you’re going to your dance classes … and then you just work your way up the ranks.”

Jones’ students are now doing that all across the country — and here, in Southeast Missouri, too — in remarkable style.